1/5
Ariel (Holly Bailey) collects things that people throw away. Image courtesy of Disney
LOS ANGELES, May 22 (UPI) -- Of all Disney's must-see remakes , The Little Mermaid hits theaters Friday, not nearly as bad as The Lion King or its Pinocchio . There are aspects that deserve attention, but there is strong evidence that live action is not suitable for The Little Mermaid.
Ariel (Halle Bailey), daughter of King Triton (Javier Bardem), collects human artifacts that have sunk in the ocean. She yearns to join the people above, but Triton remains overprotective.
When Ariel rescues sailor Eric (John Hauer-King), octopus witch Ursula (Melissa McCarthy) makes a deal with Ariel. Ursula will give up her legs for three days, but not her voice.
If Ariel receives a true love's kiss before the third sunset, she will still be human. But if she doesn't, she will become Ursula's prisoner.
Opening up the film to a more diverse cast is the best justification for a remake 34 years later. This film gives non-white viewers the opportunity to see themselves as Ariel, Triton and the voices of Sebastian the Crab (David Diggs) or Scuttle the Seagull (Awkwafina).
Musicals especially lend themselves to different voices and interpretations, with Bailey delivering a fiery version of "Part of Your World." Moreover, the problem is that no subsequent song can match that feeling or intensity.
Watching Ursula, Ariel and Triton live also draws attention to some of the plot themes. For example, it becomes much clearer how Ursula manipulates Ariel.
There may be instant love in fairy tales, but adults know that three days are not enough to develop such feelings. The boy, not to mention the one who lived alone under the water, doesn't know.
Like Bardem, Newt also presents a violent dramatization of an overprotective father when he lashes out. He's the guy who won an Oscar ( "No Country for Old Men ") for killing people with a cattle prod while forbidding Ariel to leave the sea.
However, the production of The Little Mermaid exposes the shortcomings of these adaptations. Not a single shot appears to actually be underwater.
Presumably, the reason for these real-time remakes is that Disney has the technology to make them. In The Jungle Book and even The Lion King, they could bring to life lions, tigers and snakes that looked like real animals.
The human figures appear in a very dry scene with the seabed added later, which they are. Aquaman used the same technique, but managed to make the characters look like they were swimming more.
The actors of The Little Mermaid have learned to do some kind of swinging motion and their fins look real, but without a believable ocean the whole exercise is pointless. Iconic footage like the wave splashing Ariel looks dull due to the small amount of water compared to its animated counterpart.
Interestingly, Eric's boat doesn't seem to be in the sea either. In older films, images of the sea or the road were projected onto the set behind the cars, and this primitive effect seemed more impressive.
Audiences paused in disbelief as the filmmakers made the most of what they had to work with. Now it seems the filmmakers are forcing audiences to admit they're seeing the ocean, while much more advanced technology still doesn't seem real.
There are hints of complex themes in the unfolding story of Hans Christian Andersen's Disney adaptation. Triton's kingdom is dealing with pollution from shipwrecks, and Eric's mother, Queen Selina (Noma Dumezweni), fears that the sea is destroying their island.
None of these tracks are worth your time and only serve to extend the movie's running time between songs. New songs, like Scuttle's rapping, are out of place and frankly sound like songwriter Lin-Manuel Miranda adding a Hamilton twist to Alan Menken and Howard Ashman's originals.
It goes without saying that any musical must include at least one new song to be nominated for an Oscar. Other Disney musicals have been much more consistent in this regard.
An hour passes before Ariel makes a deal with Ursula. The movie mentions Ursula twice in the first half, but she's just waiting for Ariel to have a vulnerable moment that she can exploit.
The next hour Ariel is on dry land with Eric is pretty sweet. Ariel shows Eric the beauty of marine artifacts he never realized and learns to communicate without words.
That's still too many extras for a story that boils down to "Be careful what you wish for" and "Parents, you gotta let your kids grow up." The Lion King was about 15 minutes shorter and slowed down the pace of the original even more, but The Little Mermaid still feels too long.
The Little Mermaid doesn't quite capture the energy of Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast . While not the worst of trends, it does confirm that inevitability alone is not reason enough to repaint a movie.
Fred Topel, who went to film school at Ithaca College, is an entertainment writer for UPI in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012, and a member of the Critics Association since 2023. Learn more about his work in entertainment.
